


A Nice Dream

by KawaiiBoushi



Category: Persona 4
Genre: F/M, he's a p mellow drunk, someday i'll write drunk noot but for now have a drunk kanj
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 09:16:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5579920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KawaiiBoushi/pseuds/KawaiiBoushi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt: "Things You Said When You were Drunk." Rise drags the crew to Okina City and Kanji says more than he means to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Nice Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This is technically a couple months old, so if you follow me on Tumblr, this probably isn't new to you. Sorry!

Kanji couldn’t for the life of him explain how he’d ended up drunk at a club in Okina City, nor how he’d managed, in his condition, to make it all the way outside before being sick. He’d never had so much as a sip of alcohol in his life up until tonight, so perhaps that was why, despite his size, it had only taken one spiked soda to get him far less sober than he would have liked to be.

Whatever the reason, Naoto noticed that sometime after Rise had begun attempting to explain to Teddie how to score (she was only half coherent and, thankfully, spouting mostly nonsense) that Kanji was no longer seated at their table. Grateful for the opportunity, she excused herself from the table, though she wasn’t convinced that anyone heard her say that she was going to look for Kanji anyway.

A quick trip around the perimeter of the club and into both bathrooms told her he was no longer in the building. For a moment, worry that he had wandered somewhere dangerous flashed in the back of her mind, but it was quickly relieved when she stepped outside and found him sitting on a bench across the street.

“Kanji-kun!” she called, hurrying to his side. He was doubled over, torso nearly parallel with the ground and arms over his head. “Are you all right?”

He slowly sat up, blinking at her. He looked disoriented and slightly green. “Naoto? Is…you? D-did ya come lookin’ for me?” 

For some reason, Naoto felt her cheeks grow warm at this. “You disappeared without a word,” she responded defensively. “I - thought something may have happened.”

“Well, somethin’ happened in that bush o’er there.” Kanji jerked his head towards some nearby landscaping, then immediately groaned, holding his head. “I don’…think tha’ was cola in whatever Rise gave me.”

_Which is why I fetched my own drink,_ Naoto almost said, but decided to refrain from adding insult to injury. “It would seem not,” she agreed. An awkward silence hung for a moment in which Naoto realized she hadn’t planned what she would do or say once she found Kanji.

“Y’know,” he finally spoke up, “I’unno why I came tonight. Don’ drink. Gets borin’ watchin’ them drink.” He paused, then decided, “Prolly cuz you came. Course, dunno why _you_ came. You ain’t into this stuff either.”

Naoto opened her mouth to reply, but something in her stomach twisted, stopping her. ‘Because I’m still afraid my best friends will tire of me and leave if I do not perform well’ seemed pathetic to admit out loud, even to a drunk who would likely forget this conversation tomorrow. Instead, she prompted, “You came…because of me?”

Kanji nodded, though the movement was noticeably smaller than the previous one. “Stupid, ain’t it? All this time an’ I’m still followin’ you around like…like some lovesick puppy, but I ain’t got the guts to do nothin’ about it. Can’t just get over it, neither.”

“Love - lovesick?” Naoto repeated, heart skipping a beat. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t the alcohol talking. Liquor loosened tongues, but it didn’t put words one didn’t mean in one’s mouth, not words like these at least. 

“Mhm,” Kanji confirmed. Finally, he looked up at her, eyes unfocused, and gave a sharp laugh that caused Naoto to jump. “S’real funny, someone like me thinkin’ I have a chance with someone like you.” 

Naoto tried to ignore the pounding in her chest. In all honesty, there was a lot she had been trying to ignore for far too long, and she felt awful that this was how it was culminating. Kanji took her silence as his cue to continue. 

“This is so…so stupid, an’ pathetic. At least all the times I imagined workin’ up the courage to confess, I wasn’t wasted. Like ya needed another reason to…” He shook his head. “Shouldn’t’a come. Never could’a embarrassed myself like this if I wasn’t here to begin with. We could’a just…stayed like we were, me stupid an’ you clueless, but at least…we could still talk an’ stuff. Like normal. Without you knowin’ more’n ya need to know. I mean, if I were you, I couldn’t look me in the eye after this.” 

“Kanji-kun,” Naoto murmured, but he appeared not to hear her. 

“Look, jus’ - jus’ forget about this, okay? I prolly will in the mornin’. I hope I do. Pretend this never happened, an’ let me keep thinkin’ you don’t know, cuz - cuz I don’ wanna lose you. If we can stay friends…” He buried his face in his hands, sighing. “I ruined that, too, didn’t I?” 

Naoto didn’t answer him immediately. She stared at her hands, clutching the hem of her shirt tightly. The cluelessness Kanji had referred to had been feigned for quite some time now. Once she had finally caught on that Kanji held romantic feelings for her, her first instinct was to let him down gently - but she found that she couldn’t bring herself to let him down at all. The implications of this hesitation frightened her, and for months, she simply pushed the matter to a distant corner of her mind, always telling herself she would sort it out later. 

And now later had finally come. She couldn’t ignore either of their feelings for any longer; it wasn’t fair to them. It was time to make a decision.

“What if…” Taking a deep breath, Naoto continued, “What if I don’t want you to forget?”

After a beat, Kanji looked at her again, blinking. “Huh…?”

“I…” She tugged her hat down. “I wish you would not compare yourself to me so disparagingly. Even if your affections were not reciprocated, I do not want you to…to idolize me so, especially not if it harms your own self-image.” 

Kanji continued blinking at her, and Naoto realized he might not be quite sober enough to decipher what she had said.

“That is to say…” She flushed deeply. “I have always valued our friendship, Kanji-kun, and I do not see you as pathetic. And over time, you have come to be…s-special to me in a…a new way. So…um…” Clearing her throat, she managed, “I believe I feel the same way for you as you do for me.”

Kanji swayed a little, staring at her in disbelief. Naoto held out her hands warily in case he toppled over. “You…what?”

“Do - do not make me say it again!” Her shoulders squared, rising up to her ears, and she managed to hide almost her entire face behind the brim of her hat. “Although…if you require a reminder when you are not quite so…inebriated…I would not mind repeating myself.”

A full minute passed this time before Naoto peeked at Kanji, only to find him grinning widely. “Y’know…you’re cute when ya blush…and when ya talk all fancy like that…you’re jus’…really cute, like, all the time…”

At that, Naoto leapt to her feet. “We are leaving,” she declared, stuffing her hands in her pockets. “The trains are only running for a little while longer. Rise-san and the others can find their own way home.” She took a few steps, then looked over her shoulder. Kanji seemed to be struggling to stay upright, so she sighed and moved close enough to help keep him steady.

“If I passed out on that bench an’ I’m jus’ dreamin’ this part, it’s a nice dream,” he commented as they slowly walked in tandem towards the train station. Naoto was surprised that he _hadn’t_ passed out yet, and hoped his inevitable crash would wait until they were both seated. “But if it ain’t…” He glanced down at her, cheeks already flushed from alcohol growing redder still.

Naoto’s head had begun to spin as it slowly dawned on her what had just transpired between them - though she would be lying if she said she completely regretted it. “Yes, well,” she stammered, “we can decide that upon further discussion tomorrow.”


End file.
